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Debra Granik - Blog

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Debra Granik: I did not know much or anything about the Ozarks. I think I had a little basic American heritage history where I knew that Hill cultures in the United States, did have music that was revered. Musial traditions that were revered. And yet, that’s like a very comfortable coastal touristical thing to know. You know? Oh gosh, amazing music. I knew nothing. And I guess what happens when you go to a region where you don’t know anything about it. That in a short time, you do realize that there are people-- talk about cultural ambassador moments, people do want to be ambassadors. I want to represent-- I want to go there and inasmuch as people wanted-- be very specific about what they think is valiant and poetic and lyrical and stirring and worthy of great respect of their region, of course, I also want them to have a positive opinion about New York City and about urban people and about what would happen to them if they came to see my neck of the woods. So, it does work both ways. But in this case, we were extremely fortunate. There were lifelong residents of the Ozarks who were extremely willing to not just answer our questions but bring us to places, bring us -- to let us come to a covered dish event at a local church. To see a 95th birthday of someone in the community. To go to many different kinds of fundraisers and musical events and things that in which off the record, people are doing what they normally do to make life interesting, to make it work, to keep themselves afloat emotionally. And then there’s also just rock hard history that can be taught. Tenets of life that were very pervasive in Hill culture that had to do with a certain frugality and sustainability. And a certain kind of knowledge that life will always have a kind of rigorous physical struggle attached to it and what that means about bucking up and being powerful and strong. And that led very quickly to a huge longitudinal analysis of the word “hillbilly” and what happened to that word. How did it become perverted and reduced and jaundiced to mean something? How did it become a derisive stereotype where if it’s opened up, it has so many other nuances like any ethnic or heritage identity that people self appoint or bring to themselves. You realize lots of people -- you come to a region, you’re afraid to say that word as an outsider, as a coastal person, as a middle class person and you realize that so many people have such a beautiful resplendent definition of that word.

In this excerpt from the podcast, Granik explains how she, a New Yorker, entered the culture of the Ozarks. [3:24]